


Return to Sender

by Anonymous



Category: Ea-nasir Tablet RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 15:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8758999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A weary messenger waits; his master makes a plan.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Probably contains historical inaccuracies. Working with wiki-level knowledge here.

"Ea-nasir said this to you?" Nanni raved, pacing back and forth in the yard. "These are the words he spoke to my honourable messenger?"

Sit-Sin did not answer, for he had related to his master several times already the words Ea-nasir had spoken to him today. Instead he stretched his tired feet in the dust as he sat in the shade of the wall and watched Nanni pace.

Nanni paced so much, Sit-Sin thought without much respect, that he might cover the entire distance to Ea-nasir's house and back again himself several times in total.

Much as his faithful servant had.

After muttering to himself for several minutes, Nanni approached his servant again. "And when he sent you away, without giving you the money bag I left with him, what was his manner? Describe it to me: was he polite to you when he told you to go, or did he treat you with contempt?" 

"Ea-nasir was not," he admitted, for he was a trustworthy man and could not lie, "very polite."

"He was not very polite to you?" Nanni threw up his hands and began shouting again. "How could he not be polite to you! Are you not a respectable servant from a good house? Did you not carry faithfully the message from your master, through enemy territory, to the house of Ea-nasir?"

Sit-Sin sat up straight, sensing that his master's sympathy might be stirred on his behalf. "I did. The territory I must cross is very dangerous to travellers. And it rained half the journey until I came there."

"It rained! And did Ea-nasir invite you into his house to dry yourself and rest?"

"Well, he did let me rest beneath the trees in the courtyard, but only for a short time."

"You see? You see? Only a short time! Ea-nasir! Who is he to treat my servant with such contempt! And after it had rained!"

"I was quite tired, after making the journey through enemy territory. I was even chased once by a dog."

"A dog chased you?" Nanni was clearly dismayed. He was a good man to serve, in truth. "And after all this, still the dishonourable Ea-nasir treats you with contempt and sends you away empty-handed."

"So must I return to Ea-nasir tomorrow?" he asked, confident he knew the answer to his question.

"Of course you must return to Ea-nasir tomorrow!" Nanni cried. 

The servant stared at his master. "I must?" 

"And you must tell him - no, but there is too much I want to say to Ea-nasir, this will not work. You are a good and respectful servant and this message to Ea-nasir must, of necessity, be delivered in the most direct and forceful manner if he is to take heed."

Sit-Sin was greatly cheered to hear this. "Then you will make the journey yourself?"

"No, no, that will not be necessary. I will tell you what I will do: I will have the message written in clay and you will carry the tablet thus to Ea-nasir and put it in his hands. That will be much better. He will read it, and he will know my mind, and that I am not one to treat with contempt! Ea-nasir will then certainly give back the money bag I left with him. And he will never again deliver to me copper ingots of such poor quality." Nanni nodded firmly. "Yes, this is what I will do. Where is my scribe?"

Nanni left the yard, calling for his scribe, while Sit-Sin sat morosely, and hoped it would not rain tomorrow.


End file.
